The Eagles have still had practice this week but there's been no media availability.

I did get to watch about 45 minutes worth on Tuesday and it was a very detail-oriented practice. A lot of fundamentals, but also some good 1-on-1 competition in both the run and pass game.. But, overall, nothing crazy or anything that stood out.

O'Brien did do his usual Wednesday Zoom press conference. Here's everything he had to say:

On if Week 6 is an ideal spot for a bye

"Yeah, that's a good...about halfway through is always good for a. bye. You never want it too early, you never want it too late. Halfway's good. You have enough information on yourself that you can really study and see where you need to get better, things like that. I think it also allows you to maybe heal up a little bit. Some of the guys that have been playing a lot. It gives you a chance to work your younger guys too in some of these practices. It's definitely good to have it six games in."

On if the staff is looking at the whole season or or still correcting from Virginia

"No, we're reviewing the whole season. We did a little Virginia Tech today, but really, more about us. More about us during the bye week."

On what the points of emphasis are going forward

"I mean, look...I'm not going to get into all the specifics of it, but I mean there's obvious things. You've got to do a better job of taking care of the ball. Got to improve certain areas in all three phases, whether it's coverage units, return units, some things schematically, some things technique wise. There's a lot that you're working on, I'm not gonna like, list all of the emphasis points. There's a lot to get better, it's all about getting better."

On having more interceptions defensively now than all of last season

"Well there's nothing more important than the ball. So, we try to...we work turnover drills every day. Whether it's strip drills or interception drills, we're working that every single day. Sometimes, year-to-year, that's the way the ball bounces. I can remember in 1998 at Georgia Tech when I was there, I think we we returned like eight fumbles or interceptions for touchdowns and we were 10-2. The following year, didn't really have any of those. So, it's kind of year-to-year, but you always want to emphasize it. I'm not saying it's luck, but it's gone our way so far for the most part. We need to continue to do that."

On if turnovers genuinely help momentum for a team (serious question asked...)

"No doubt. Take the ball away, it's a huge thing. There's no doubt about it. You can see it in some of the games we've had - the wins that we've had. Those turnovers have been huge. They can shorten the field. They can get the crowd into it if it's a home game. There's a lot of different things that can create momentum. Football is a game of momentum at times and that's why it's so important for us to do a better job taking care of the ball. We have to take care of the ball. You look back at our two losses, a lot of those were...you could pinpoint the turnovers. So, we've gotta do a better job with that."

On if he's happy with Tommy's balance of staying in the pocket and taking off

"I think he's done a good job. I think there's things we can do better and that's part of the reason why you work so hard during the bye week as a coaching staff to try and figure out what we can do better. Whether it's Tommy, the receivers, the line, the tight ends, the running backs, whoever it is. There's areas to improve no doubt about it and hopefully, we've been able to do that. Tommy's a very instinctive player and like I've said in the past, never going to take that away from him. He just has to do a great job of taking care of the football and making good decisions for the team. We need to continue to improve things we're doing around him."

On if the team is looking to be more run-heavy

"Every game is different. We're a game plan offense. We try to be balanced. We try to think of the best things that we can do to take advantage pf what the defense is doing. Sometimes it doesn't work and we've got to adjust. We're a game plan offense. We always strive for balance run and pass, but in the end, it's going to come down to we're gonna try to do what we believe is the best thing for us to try to win. We look at each game. Everybody's different. Everybody has different strengths and weaknesses and we try to take advantage of the weaknesses the best we can and if it's not working we've got to adjust. That's what we try to do in every game."

On what type of work the younger, less experienced players get during a bye week

"If they're freshman, there's no doubt that it's still teaching them the difference between college and high school. No doubt about it. A lot of it is technique work. It's individual work. Group work. Position work. Unit work. Offense-defense and then we scrimmage. A lot of the guys (had one) last Sunday and we'll probably do one tomorrow. Have a 50-play scrimmage for a lot of the guys who haven't played football. That's not just freshman, that's a lot of different guys. I think there's a bright future here at BC. There's a lot of good young players here that people haven't really heard a whole lot about. So, I think we try to take periods of these practices here during the bye week to really work with those guys. It's been good, it's been very productive."

On chemistry building between Castellanos, Morales and Franklin

"Those guys do a great job. They're very solid players. They're very smart. They compliment each other very well. Tommy definitely has a connection with those guys. You could see it in the last couple of weeks, last couple games. It's been good. We have a pretty good history with tight ends in this offense if tyou go back and look. We always want multiple tight ends, good tight ends that we can use in the run and the pass."

On striking a balance between trying to win now and laying a foundation for the future

"Yeah, I mean, we talk every day about what we believe the culture of the program, what we want that to be. That's something we talk about every day that we incorporate into our study of opponents or the way we handle ourselves off the field, whatever it might be. That's what we do every day. We talked about that (Tuesday) for a while. Hard work, discipline, good teammates, humility, guys that care about the right things like getting a great degree from BC in combination with playing great football. Improvement, trying to get better every day. Understanding what Boston College can do for them in their lives. Go to class. Give back to the community. No team in the country does more in the community than we do. There might be teams that do as much, but nobody does more. Our guys do an unbelievable job in the community. So, that's what BC's all about. We talk about those things every day in conjunction with getting ready for opponents."

On if Turbo Richard will start at RB again going forward or if the rotation will be balanced

"I would never look at...even though he was in there for the first play of the game, obviously, that' a package that we have. You can say he's the starter. Obviously, there's a lot of running backs that can play for us. Kye Robichaux, Treshaun Ward, Datrell Jones has seen time. Jordan McDonald has seen time. So, we have a good room of running backs and we try to use them differently and try to take advantage of their skillsets. Things like that. So, you'll see multiple running backs the rest of the season."